SMEs Develop Self-Diagnosis Model for a 'Healthy Workplace'

Creating Workplaces Where Youth Want to Work Through Self-Diagnosis by SME Employees

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] A self-diagnostic model for a "Healthy Workplace" in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been developed, allowing SME employees to assess how well their company's jobs meet the preferences of young job seekers. The Korea Federation of SMEs (Chairman Kim Ki-moon) announced on the 10th that it developed the SME "Healthy Workplace" self-diagnostic model through joint research with Professor Lee Jeong-hwan's team at Chungbuk National University. This initiative aims to support SMEs' voluntary efforts to improve workplaces amid ongoing job mismatches between youth and SMEs and the polarization of job quality.

This model derives a "workplace health score" based on employee satisfaction within SMEs across five areas: salary level, performance rewards, working environment, corporate soundness, and organizational culture. Specifically, the workplace health score is calculated by summing the weighted satisfaction scores of 13 items across the five areas, with a total possible score of 100 points. The average workplace health score of individual employees becomes the company-level workplace health score. The weights for each area were determined by comprehensively reflecting young job seekers' preference survey results and expert opinions: performance rewards (27.3%), organizational culture (22.7%), working environment (18.3%), salary level (17.8%), and corporate soundness (13.9%).

Young job seekers prefer SMEs offering a "monthly salary around 2.37 million won," "an organizational culture that respects personal life while making work enjoyable and fun," "a convenient commute and excellent welfare benefits in the working environment," "stable employment and growth potential in the company," and "jobs with incentives beyond salary." In particular, monetary compensation indicators such as salary level (17.8%) and incentives beyond salary (16.5%) were highly valued, thus holding significant weight in the self-diagnostic model.

On the other hand, superficial factors like a "close-knit, family-like organizational culture" or a "working environment equipped with state-of-the-art facilities," as well as "companies fulfilling social responsibilities" and "support for personal education and early promotion," were relatively less preferred and thus did not hold much weight in the model. This study specifically targeted young job seekers intending to work in SMEs to identify a healthy workplace concept tailored to SMEs. Through 13 items, it allows easy and simple derivation of individual employees' perceived "workplace health" and company-level "workplace health," reflecting SME employees' satisfaction with factors important to young job seekers, thereby providing more practical results, explained the Korea Federation of SMEs.

The Korea Federation of SMEs plans to actively promote the self-diagnostic tool to increase its use among SME employees and link the self-diagnostic results by company to match good SME jobs with young job seekers. Additionally, in line with the trend toward non-face-to-face services, it aims to support easier and more convenient participation in self-diagnosis by SME employees through online diagnosis and database development using the "Good SME Job Platform" (tentative name), which is being jointly developed with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, targeting service launch within the year.

Kim Ki-moon, Chairman of the Korea Federation of SMEs, stated, "This research announcement marks a starting point to resolve the polarization of jobs between large and small-medium enterprises despite the worsening business environment due to COVID-19. It is part of the SME sector's voluntary efforts to continuously create stable jobs where young people want to work," adding, "Along with SMEs' self-help efforts, we hope that active government support and improved awareness among youth will accompany this to contribute to coexistence and overcoming social crises."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.